Recently after a frustrating morning of responding to atheist
attacks on God and on the Bible, I decided to go through the first
100 e-mails I had and see how many of the objections that the
atheists raised were from the Old Testament. These ranged from
name-calling directed at God for some atrocity detailed in the Old
Testament to attacks on what is perceived as unfairness on God’s
part. Included was the impossibility of events in the Old Testament
like Jonah and the “whale,” the plagues in Egypt, a talking serpent,
a talking donkey, and water coming from a rock just
by hitting it or speaking to it. I found that 96 of the 100
objections came from the Old Testament. Of the four from the New
Testament, one wanted to know what Jesus and God were doing between
Malachi and Matthew and had an obscene proposal. The other three
were the usual challenges to the virgin birth, the resurrection, and
the miracles of Jesus.

The sad thing about this situation is that it is not just atheists
who do not seem to be able to separate the two testaments of God.
Many Christians and even some Bible scholars seem to struggle with
the separation, and as we all know there are Protestant
denominations that accept some Old Testament practices including the
Sabbath, the Passover, and even some attempts at restoring the
throne of David in Jerusalem. A failure to separate the testaments
results in a plethora of misconceptions about God and the Christian
system, and gives room to many atheist challenges. Let us look at
the two testaments and how and why God has given mankind two very
different systems to live by.

THE OLD TESTAMENT WAS FOR A
PRIMITIVE TIME.

If we take the Bible literally, we have to look at who wrote it, to
whom it was written, why it was written, and how the people of the
day in which it was written would have understood it. Many
complaints that atheists and skeptics voice about the Bible are
things that happened in the early history of man. Today in the
United States there is an ordered society allowing law and order to
be functional without each individual having to take care of it. In
our modern society each person does not have to negotiate peace and
make sure the agreement is carried out with some other country. In
today’s world in America a woman can choose not to marry and can
support herself and live successfully. She even has the right to own
and run a business.

In the world of the Old Testament,
none of these things were possible. An additional complication in
the Old Testament was that even though God told man and woman to
become one flesh and that there would be a special relationship
between them, man did not follow that admonition (see Genesis 2:24). Polygamy and the use
of concubines was never commanded by God just as slavery was never
commanded by God. It was Sarai who chose to have Abram take Hagar as
a concubine producing a tragic story of conflict and pain for all
involved (Genesis 16). Humans chose to
introduce these destructive practices as fixes to perceived needs.
People resolved debt by selling themselves into slavery (Leviticus 25:39 – 41; Deuteronomy 15:12). When a
woman was widowed and had no method of support, the responsibility
fell on the brother of her husband (Deuteronomy 25:5 –10). In this
barbaric and primitive world women became pawns that could be sold
or traded. The Law of Moses addressed all of this, but man’s
selfishness produced some horrible results. This is precisely why
Jesus came saying in essence, “This is what you have been taught in
the past, but I am saying to you here is a better way” (Matthew 5 – 7).

A classic example of all of this is found in 2 Samuel where David is
told that just as he has taken Uriah’s wife in adultery so shall his
wives be taken from him (2 Samuel
12:11–12). Biblical skeptics maintain that these wives were to
be raped to punish David as a command of God. The passages do not
say they were raped, rather that “I will take your wives before your
eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your
wives in the sight of the sun.” Just as Bathsheba was a willing
partner in David’s sin, so would David’s wives be willing partners
in Absalom’s tent (2 Samuel
16:20 – 22). It is interesting that David took care of these
women when he returned to Jerusalem, but never again took them as
wives (2 Samuel 20:3). In the
twenty-first century having a tent put on top of the house as a
bedroom chamber to send a message to the nation is hard to
comprehend.

When Christ came to earth he called man to a different way of
living. In Matthew 19:4 – 6 Jesus
talks about marriage being restored to one man/one wife — for life.
Jesus called mankind to separate church and state (Mark 12:17) and Paul argued that civil
authority was to be obeyed and government looked upon in a new way (Romans 13:1– 7). Women were elevated
to being of equal value to men and slaves were identified as equal
in the church (Galatians 3:28).
The old law was “nailed to his cross” (Colossians 2:14) and man was
called to “good news” — the gospel of Christ. Refusing to understand
this and trying to make the Old Testament a part of the church today
is a major error — one made by atheists and believers alike.

MUCH OF THE BIBLICAL RECORD IS
HISTORY — NOT THEOLOGY.

In Galatians 3:24 the Old Testament
is referred to as a “schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we
might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no
longer under a schoolmaster.” There are many lessons that can be
learned from Old Testament stories, but much of the violence and war
that the Bible records are not violence or wars that God commanded.
They are the actions of humans functioning on their own, without
God’s instructions. Jephthah’s vow to sacrifice his daughter in Judges 11:30 – 40 was not
something God commanded be done. The lesson of not making careless
vows is there, but what happened was history, not a theological
example of what we should do. The horrible story in Judges 19 of a woman who was
unfaithful to her husband and later was gang raped to death by the
men of Gibeah causing her husband to cut her body up and send pieces
all over Israel is history — not a command of God. The attitude of
many biblical skeptics would make the local newspaper responsible
for causing all of the bad news they report.

MIRACLES ARE FAITH ISSUES — NOT
SCIENCE ISSUES.

We frequently get skeptics writing and asking how we can believe the
Bible is true when there are scientifically impossible stories in
the Bible. How can a bush burn and not be consumed? How can a virgin
give birth? How can a man be raised from the dead? How can a donkey
or a serpent talk? When we say the Bible is scientifically accurate,
these issues are valid questions.

The main point that needs to be made
here is that if something is stated as a miracle, then it is not
going to be scientifically explainable. The thing that makes it a
miracle is that it is not possible by normal processes on the earth.
If it were explainable then it would not be a miracle. There are
relatively few miracles in the Bible. People tend to focus on the
miracles, but of the thousands of events described in the Bible very
few are stated to be miracles. Those that are can be seen to be
scientifically impossible. A good example of this is the story of
“Jonah and the Whale.” I put that as a title and in quotes because
the Bible does not say it was a whale. The Hebrew word used in the
book of Jonah is dag, which means fish. Skeptics will be quick to
point out that no human could live for three days inside any fish or
sea mammal known and probably not any animal of the past. The Bible
states clearly however, that the creature that swallowed Jonah was a
special creation of God (Jonah 1:17).
It was not a natural occurrence and would not have a scientific
explanation.

You have three choices about how to approach something like this.
(1) You can accept on faith that it happened just exactly as the
Bible says it did. (2) You can accept on faith that it did not
happen as the Bible says it did. (This has to be on faith because
you cannot prove it did not happen and that a miracle did not take
place.) (3) You can accept on faith that this is a story designed to
teach a message and while the message is true the story may be just
a tool to convey the message, not a historical fact. All three of
these choices are faith choices. The same thing is true of any
situation in the Bible that is portrayed as a miracle of God.

In the Old Testament there are different Hebrew words used for
things that are miraculous and things that are not. The Hebrew word
bara (create) is used to
denote things that are unique to God. This word is never used in
reference to something that man can do. The Hebrew words asah (make) and yatsar (form, fashion, mold, or
shape) are used in reference to things both God and man can do.

If the Bible stated something as a miracle that was clearly a
natural process, there would be a valid criticism of the biblical
record. If something is declared to be natural which would clearly
have to be a miracle to occur, again there would be a valid
objection to be made about the Bible coming from the inspiration of
God. Neither of these two situations exists.

CHRISTIANITY IS THE NEW TESTAMENT
OF GOD — NOT THE OLD.

When my wife Phyllis and I wrote our
wills, we had a certain set of circumstances in our family that
required certain provisions to be made. Our son with multiple
handicaps had certain needs that had to be taken into account if we
were not going to be there to do it. Our daughters needed provision
to be able to secure their college education if their parents were
no longer on the scene. By May of 2008 there had been a lot of
changes in our lives. Both of our girls had graduated from college
and had successful careers and families. Our son was in an
assisted-living facility and under the direction of a corporation
that takes care of disabled adults. My wife died. It was time to
write another will because the situations the old will was designed
to serve were no longer relevant. When I re-did my will my new will
abrogated my old will.

In the same way, the New Testament
redid God’s will for man, because circumstances were different.
The old will was done away with because man’s needs were different
and his capacity to function had changed. Consider the following
contrasts between the old and the new wills.

Jesus and the New Testament writers
clearly indicated the elimination of the old will of God and the
establishment of the new. In Colossians
2:9 –18 and 3:10 –11
Paul makes it clear. In 2:14
we are told that Jesus blotted “out the handwriting of ordinances
that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of
the way, nailing it to his cross.” In Galatians 3:24 – 29 the Old
Testament is portrayed as a schoolmaster, but it says “we are no
longer under a schoolmaster.” In Ephesians
2:10 – 22 this message is repeated. All of these passages talk
about the universal equality of all human beings who are one in
Christ. In Hebrews 10:12 – 20
the covenants are discussed and the new covenant is called “a new
and living way, which he hath consecrated for us” (verse 20). In Matthew 27:51 when the veil of the
temple is ripped from top to bottom at the death of Christ, the new
will of God was enacted and the separation of men based on racial,
cultural, or ethnic differences was done away with.

Paul wrote to Timothy (2 Timothy 2:15),
“Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that does not
need to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth.” Atheists
attempt to denigrate the Bible by taking Old Testament stories and
events and apply them to twenty-first century circumstances and
standards. This is not “rightly dividing the word of truth.” It is
like trying to enact a will that has been superseded by a more
modern will. The new abrogates the old and the old is no longer in
effect.

THE CHURCH ON EARTH IS AFACILITATOR — NOT AN END PRODUCT.

Another device used by atheists to
discredit Christianity is to point to the church as illogical and
inconsistent with common sense. Why does God need our money, our
prayers, our praise, our requests, and our service? The answer to
this question is that he does not! God is not a human who has human
needs that must be met by human actions. We do not praise God
because he has a self-image problem, or pray to him because he needs
our information. Giving is not done because God needs our financial
support. The church is the people who are “called out.” The called
out are given tools that help them do what God has called them to
do, which in turn brings satisfaction, joy, peace, and stability in
a confused world.

We gather together in
worship to facilitate our looking to a higher power, and being
encouraged and uplifted by our time with people of like faith. The
church enables us to manage our benevolent work and increase our
service to our fellow human beings. Atheists can complain about the
church all they want, but the fact is that the church meets the
needs that are present all through out the world. From homeless
shelters, to food kitchens and pantries, to caring for the elderly
and orphans it is primarily churches that do the work — not atheist
organizations. The church facilitates education and encourages
morality, and while there are weak people in churches just as there
are everywhere in life, it is still the church that teaches and
provides means for people to live moral and
responsible lives. Church is not a political organization, nor is it
nationalistic or racial. You cannot read passages like Galatians
3:28 and not see the radical teachings of equality of all humans in
the New Testament.

Ultimately the cosmos will dissolve and the church — the called out,
the beneficiaries of the New Testament of God — will be free of all
of this. Let us understand the difference between the New and the
Old and follow God’s final will for man that is “given by
inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God
may be perfect, thoroughly
furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16 –17).